This fall, a bright new light will shine in the Southfield City Centre’s business community when Clarience Technologies welcomes employees to its new global headquarters on Civic Center Drive at Northwestern Highway. The parent company of Truck-Lite Co., LLC, DAVCO Technology, Road Ready, RIGID Industries and Lumitec, Clarience Technologies serves 68 countries with lighting products, visibility systems, telematics and other solutions, primarily for the transportation industry.
The new two-story, 50,000 square-foot building has room for about 150 employees and boasts several innovative design features to maximize the efficiency and purpose of the five subsidiary companies under the Clarience Technologies umbrella. “A lot of thought has been put into the layout,” says Beth English, vice president of marketing for Truck-Lite, a Clarience Technologies company.
In addition to a fitness center, cafe and lounges, the building features collaborative areas and open workspaces as well as a traditional office environment for employees. A customer care center in the lobby welcomes visitors with corporate-specific videos projected on glass walls and an artifact wall to display products. High tech monitors and state-of-the-art communications systems are spread throughout the building for easy and efficient connections with Clarience Technologies offices and subsidiary companies around the globe.
“A truck bay large enough to hold a full semi-tractor trailer is a great site for demonstrations and training, with an observation deck, all fully enclosed in the building,” says English.
But perhaps what is most innovative is the Road Ready Command Center, a central hub for fleet management. “Road Ready is one of the fastest-growing telematics businesses. The Road Ready Command Center will be a huge area that will display all of the fleets we have on the Road Ready system and will be managed from the headquarters building,” English explains. “There is a wall with a 30-foot screen to display the active fleets and is powered by an extensive IT support component.”
The Southfield City Centre: a deliberate choice
While many prospective sites in southeast Michigan were considered, the Southfield City Centre emerged as the winner due to its proximity to a strong talent pool to fill managerial, sales, engineering and technical positions for the growing electronics company, as well as the convenient location, pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly trail network, robust community-building business events and other attractive features typically enjoyed by a millennial workforce, according to English.
“One of the key draws for us to Southfield was the community and what it has to offer, as well as the adjacency to universities, which will provide a high-quality workforce. The Southfield City Centre parcel is a large space, and we want to be a good corporate citizen and part of what is going on locally,” English says.
The steel and concrete structure was built largely by local teams of suppliers and contractors, says English. In its design, the nearly 5-acre corner location has attractive brickwork, landscaping, lighting and seating, creating a beautiful space where employees and visitors will want to spend time, right on the Southfield City Centre Trail network.
A pedestrian plaza will be added by Clarience to link the headquarters to the City Centre Trail. The Southfield City Centre will also contribute funding to this development, as well as to the installation of benches, trash receptacles, landscaping and lighting, according to Terry Croad, director of planning for the City of Southfield. The plaza was approved by the Southfield Public Arts Commission because it meets the standards of its art requirement and will contribute to the rich public arts aesthetic in the district.
“We’re excited to be located in this development hub that is accessible and close to many universities including Lawrence Tech,” says communications manager Andrew Liuzzo. “We look forward to establishing ourselves in the Southfield City Centre and adding value to what it already offers.”
Learn more about Clarience Technologies at www.clariencetechnologies.com.
